(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Louisiana’s past is as layered as an onion, with American, French, and Spanish history all resting atop the myriad tribes who have spent millennia on the Mississippi. Alan Graham knows how to peel back the layers. A contract archaeologist in Baton Rouge, he scrapes out a living one dig at a time. Hired by a wealthy landowner to search his property for a cache of long-lost Tunica Indian relics, he expects to find only dirt. But when the client is murdered for his curiosity, Alan knows he is close to the discovery of a lifetime.
To find the artifacts and sniff out the murderer, he must work alongside his competition: the overeducated Yankee Pepper Courtney. As the two dig into the dead man’s past, they find it may be safer to leave some things buried.

An archaelogical mystery, first released in the late-1990's.

Having read a lot of mysteries over the years, the level of expectation seems to get higher every book. What I am hoping for never seems to materialise...and this book was a perfect example of that.

The mystery itself was clever enough. It kept me turning the pages and hoping to find THAT clue that tied it all together. The characters were fine - especially Pepper - and the dialogue between the main characters was believable. The historical elements were interesting - I particularly liked the backstory of Louisiana itself. That certainly helped set the scene for me...

However, there was nothing about this book that made me want to read more of this series. Nothing that had that WOW factor. Nothing that made me think that this was going to be my next great reading spurt. That's sad, but true.


Paul
ARH

a new exciting series with an archeologist as the detective. Nice, quick read for a winter's night